The School Condition Allocation (SCA) is a funding scheme provided by the Department for Education (DfE) to help multi-academy trusts (MATs) maintain their school buildings and ensure that they provide a safe and suitable learning environment for students. SCA funding is available to multi-academy trusts with more than five academies and at least 3,000 students. Maintained schools and post-16 academies are also eligible to apply for SCA funding.

SCA is an essential source of financial support for MATs to maintain and improve their buildings. At Eddisons, we have a deep understanding of SCA and can assist your school in making the most of this funding opportunity.

Key Differences Between SCA and CIF

SCA funding is based on the numbers of students in your Trust and is a guaranteed source of money for your MAT every year. It is not dependent on an application process and can be spent on any maintenance issue your Trust faces. Instead, CIF funding must be applied for and is not guaranteed to be awarded.

SCA funding is calculated based on the condition of schools and, as it is project based, it must be spent on specific terms. Therefore, it is crucial that schools have an appropriate plan in place to appropriately spend the capital, prioritising key areas for improvement.

How can you use SCA funding?

Guidance from the Department for Education states that the School Condition Allocation should be used to ‘maintain and improve the condition of school buildings so children can learn in a safe and effective environment’.

More specifically, it sets out four areas that the funding can be used to address, including:

• Poor building condition
• Building compliance
• Energy efficiency
• Health and safety issues

To determine how best to spend your School Condition Allocation, each MAT should determine its priorities for its academies, whether it’s capital refurbishment and repairs, minor works or improvements to buildings and other facilities, such as IT. If you have any doubts about what you can spend your School Condition Allocation on, we can help.

Contact Us Today

Working as your strategic premises partner, we can help you deploy your School Condition Allocation across your estate to best meet the needs of your buildings and grounds. We do this by prioritising your maintenance issues and your future demands to create a comprehensive and achievable maintenance programme. We can:

• Develop a property maintenance and expansion strategy on your behalf
• Conduct building condition surveys to get a detailed understanding of the physical, mechanical and electrical condition of your school buildings, systems and external areas
• Provide a prioritised and fully costed list of maintenance projects
• Help you manage your short, medium and long-term defect priorities alongside your new building ambitions
• Manage and administer your maintenance projects

Get in contact with us today and make sure that your SCA funding goes as far as it can!